


Broken Minded

by PBandGelly



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Fake AH Crew, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2016-07-27
Packaged: 2018-07-27 01:23:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7597927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PBandGelly/pseuds/PBandGelly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryan gets kidnapped, and loses his trust in his friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Minded

Ryan let himself get close. He promised when he first joined that he wouldn't get attached. He would leave eventually, just like every other crew. But this time was different. He found himself enjoying his friends' company and their loud arguments. He loved Gavin's questions and Michael's anger spurts; he loved Ray's gaming sessions, Jack's motherly love, and Geoff's insane ideas. He felt at home around people.

During one fight with a rival gang, he was attacked from behind. Chloroform filling his mouth, he couldn't scream out. He saw his earpiece get smashed into pieces.

He woke up later blindfolded and arms tied tightly behind him. He felt the metal of a pole press into his back. He was still gagged. Minutes later, he was dropped to the floor. His ankle was handcuffed to the pole, and everything else was freed. He was in the basement of a small warehouse. Several boxes were stacked on top of each other, creating a maze.

Without any warning, his arms were forced out, sleeves rolled up. A knife was slashed across them numerous times. Ryan bit his lip, not wanting to give his captor the satisfaction. He looked at their face. It was covered by a black hockey mask, which was nearly caked in dried blood. Whether it was real or fake, Ryan didn't know, but he saw cold gray eyes through the holes.

"Tell me now, where is your boss's base?" The person's voice was female, with a slight British accent. It was at that moment that he saw the hair done in a bun. Ryan just stared at her. His arms were slashed some more. This went on and on. The girl eventually gave up.

For weeks he was beaten, cut, burned, and starved. He was given only a slice of bread and a mini bottle of water every morning. He held on for the first week because he believed the crew would come save him, but as the days went on he lost hope. He eventually started screaming when he was hurt. He could feel himself getting sick. He could fell his broken bones and infected cuts. His consciousness grew weaker and weaker. His body had given up.

It was the last day. He was drifting in and out of sleep. Ryan couldn't think straight. For days he had been hearing things like the crew's voices. He shrugged this time off as another hallucination. Even when he heard gunshots and alarms, he ignored it. He felt the handcuffs loosen and someone's arms as they picked him up. He didn't bother opening his eyes to find out who it was. He didn't care whether it was his crew or the other one; he wanted to leave.

Ryan didn't know what happened, but he woke up in a hospital room. He could barely move, and his head hurt. The light in the room made it hard to open his eyes. He could sense someone's presence in the room, so he let out a groan.

"Ryan, holy shit." Caleb started touching Ryan's arms. Ryan couldn't muster the energy to complain. He heard a different set of footsteps leave the room, though he didn't recognize who it was. As Caleb started to check him over, Ryan started to feel more alert. Because his throat felt like it was on fire, he communicated via sign language, which Caleb also knew. It was a doctor thing.

"Okay Ryan, here's the thing. You're lucky to be alive right now. Almost half your ribs and your left wrist are broken. You suffered major blood loss, and you're malnourished. Also, you've been out for a week and a half." Caleb was looking at a paper on his clipboard questioningly. "We need to run a test. You obviously have some kind of infection, but we need to see how far it's spread." With that, Caleb helped him get into a wheelchair. He had to hold the IV with his right hand. 

The IV was removed from Ryan's arm, and he was lain on the MRI machine. Caleb put noise-cancelling headphones over his ears. His favorite songs started playing; he figured Caleb stole his iPod. Even with the headphones and the rock and roll music, the loud rivet noises made his headache worse. After 45 minutes of pain, he was finally brought back to his room. He was left alone while Caleb waited for the results. Ryan stared at his thumbs and focused on his heartbeat. Kerry came in at one point, checked some things, and left without a word.

Caleb entered the room later still looking at his clipboard with a puzzled expression. "Ryan, this may be bizarre, but can you move your left leg?" Ryan tried to spread his toes; he really did. They just didn't work. He tried harder. Panic rose in his chest, and he could fell himself start to cry. "Ryan, Ryan, stop." Caleb's voice brought him back. He watched as the doctor put up the MRI results. Caleb pointed to his arms. "The infection started here, in your forearm. It's spread across your chest and into your leg. It seems to like it there, because there's so much bacteria, that antibiotics won't clear it. We need to amputate it." As soon as the word hit his ear, Ryan heart started to race. If he only had one leg, he'd be demoted back to the B-Team, and Ryan didn't want that. "Calm down. You don't have to be demoted." Caleb said. Ryan forgot about the heart monitor. "There's a solution to this." He picked up the iPad on the nightstand and started typing. Caleb showed him a gif of a dancer with a bionic leg. "It's much easier to use than a prosthetic and uses some weird technology. The worst part is that it costs a lot, probably close to 100 grand, but we could easily steal that money." Ryan stared at the foot of his bed, not really thinking about anything. "Ryan, we won't amputate your leg until we get the thing, or until you're ready. Do you want this?" Ryan nodded his head numbly. "I'll go tell Geoff then." Caleb walked out of the room.

Ryan wanted to cry. He knew he shouldn't, since he's been told for 30 years that guys don't cry. He tried to hold it in, but he just couldn't. Tears he'd been holding in for far too long just left his body. Thank god no one came in to tell of the day that the Vagabond cried. He woke up in a panicked state. His sweat was cold, and he couldn't stop shaking. Ryan wanted to believe the events of yesterday didn't happen, but a quick attempt to flex his foot proved otherwise. He fought back tears again.

Nobody except Caleb came in all day. It made Ryan upset because he thought his friends would come and see him. Maybe they really had abandoned him.

A week later, his leg was gone. "No" was written on his other leg. The bionic replacement felt natural enough that if he looked away he could barely tell the difference. Still, he felt alienated.

It was a few hours later when Geoff walked in. Seeing his boss for the first time in a while, Ryan could only stare as Geoff hugged him. "Ryan, oh my god, you don't understand how worried I was."

Ryan said nothing. He wasn't sure if Geoff really meant the words coming out of his mouth. "You guys abandoned me." He whispered.

Geoff stood up. "What are you talking about dude?"

"You guys left me." His voice was still raspy. "I was in there for months, and for long, I thought you would come rescue me. It gave me hope, but it was longer and longer until I was saved, and I truly thought you had abandoned me..." Ryan looked down at his hands. "You didn't even visit until now. The only person I talked to was Caleb. So, why? Why did it take so long for you to come?"

"Ryan, do you even know where you were?" Ryan shook his head. "The bastards took you all the way to Idaho; we didn't even consider that. It took Kdin a month to realize that you weren't in the area surrounding Los Santos and another two weeks to find out you weren't even in California. When we finally found you, we immediately left to get you. We killed everyone except the leader. She's in our custody now."

"She?" Ryan asked. He was surprised that a girl was running an entire crime gang. Normally they were just informants.

"Yeah, and she's that serial killer that everyone's talking about. The one who kills their enemies with fireworks, and then barbecues them. They call her the American Beauty American Psycho because of the face paint." Geoff paused for a moment. "Apparently, all her higher ups are family members. Some of them offed themselves before we could get to them. Anyways, I want you to kill her."

"Me?"

"Yeah, you were the one she captured. You deserve to end her reign."

"O-okay." He stuttered as Geoff stood up.

"Thanks buddy." He turned to leave. "And Ryan? Remember, the only was you'd leave us is through a body bag. We'd never abandon you."

After those reassuring words, Ryan got better. Everyone came in after that, and Michael explained that they weren't allowed to visit. He listened to Gavin boast about how stealthy he was and Jack fuss over how disheveled he looked. Everyone told him their sides of the story. Everyone except Ray kept him company.

When he finally finished physical therapy and was discharged, he and Michael went to where they were keeping the ABAP. In a small cell in the building, the serial killer just sat there. There was a half eaten tray of food in front of her. When the door closed, she looked up. "Huh, never thought I would be at this end." She looked barely even twenty, with short, curly hair and soulful eyes. It was even worse than Ray. "I suppose you want to ask me questions now." She smiled sadly.

"How old _are_ you?" Michael beat Ryan to the question.

"I'm 18. Not really what you expected from a gang leader with a crew that's been together for 3 years, huh?"

"Why? Why did you start this gang? Why did you kill all those people? You had your whole life ahead of you. Why give it up?" Ryan's head was flooding with questions.

"My entire family was a crew, both sides. My cousins, sister, and I were used as decoys to lure women to the base. M-my dad would r-rape them before killing them and dumping their bodies. He would force me to watch." She looked at the floor. "I was the oldest of my generation, so I managed to convince them to run away with me.

"The only life we knew was one of crime, so we fled to Los Santos. We started out just killing other crews and small jobs. Anyone we didn't kill was forced to join the Phoenixes. We quickly rose to the second most dangerous crew, right under the Fake AH Crew.

"It wasn't my idea to try and destroy your crew; it was my heist planner's. I was contempt where we were and never wanted conflict. My cousin, however, wanted more power. I just went along and sent spies to gather intel-"

"Who's the spy?" Michael interrupted.

She just sighed. "I was getting to that." She shook her hair out of her eyes. "The spy was no one you know. They were very trusted to not get caught. And they never did.

"Never mind that, so we gathered intel. One spy was very happy to report about the Vagabond. My higher ups and I were very shocked to find you acting so casual. All accounts from other crews told us that you were very stand-offish. We decided to attack you where you least expected it. All other crews go for Free or sometimes Narvaez. No one thought to get Haywood. It was amazing that we got you when we did. That shootout was merely a coincidence. It was under my order that our best toxicologist take you."

Ryan held his hand up. "Alright, I've heard enough of this story." He took a step closer. "All those people you killed, what did they have in common?"

"Don't you do your research? They were all rapists and sex offenders. Every last one of them. And you know what? They deserved it." Her expression softened. "That's all I'll tell you. Go ahead, kill me. I don't feel any emotion anymore."

Ryan honestly felt bad for doing what he was about to do. He sighed. "Michael, give me the firework rocket." Michael complied, looking as pale as Ryan felt. He aimed the rocket at the girl. "Tell me your name before you go."

"It doesn't matter." She mumbled. Ryan pulled the trigger, filling the room with colorful sparks. The serial killer did not scream as she burned to death.

They were asked later why they looked so pale. Ryan explained everything while Michael chimed in occasionally. Jack assured them that they did the right thing. After the whole ordeal, Ryan felt genuinely better. He felt that no one would leave him.

That was before he found Ray on the living room floor.

A bottle of Adderall in Ray's hand, Ryan understood the situation immediately. He ran to Caleb's room and knocked on the door frantically. Caleb opened the door, saw Ray in Ryan's arms, and ran to his car with Ryan in tow. Ryan wiped his face paint off to not scare any of the patients or doctors. He felt sick to his stomach, and all that security he felt vanished.

The doctors took Ray immediately. Ryan paced the waiting room floor while Caleb assured him that everything would be alright. That seed of doubt still lingered in his mind.

After Caleb reassured the doctor that the pills were prescribed to Ray, she told them to wait for a while. The know in Ryan's became more prominent. He stared at the wall in a daze while Caleb called the rest of the crew. Caleb snapped his fingers in front of Ryan's eyes. "He'll be okay Ryan; I promise."

Ryan didn't know what he was feeling. Shocked? Worried? Abandoned? Angry? He didn't know. It was as if someone switched his emotions off. He thought back to what ABAP said. Did he lose his feelings too?

No, he didn't. He knew he was feeling too many emotions. He knew he felt absolute terror. He didn't want to lose Ray.

"Excuse me." The nurse interrupted his thinking. "Are you Ray Narvaez's family?" Ryan nodded, not completely lying. Most of Ray's family was dead. "Come with me." She walked away.

"He looked at Caleb. "I'll be right there." Caleb said. "Just give him this." He handed Ryan Ray's DS.

He found the nurse a little way down the hall. "He's in room 627. He's awake so go right in."

Ray looked so much smaller. He was just staring at the ceiling. Ryan said nothing as he sat down. Ray sighed. "You're disappointed in me, aren't you?"

Ryan was quiet. "I was in the room when you first woke up. You looked so broken. I really couldn't stand to see you like that." Ray continued, "I left when you woke up. I was so worried Ryan, but I couldn't look at you. And I know, there's voices in your head screaming at you. How we're all gonna leave you, how nobody cares about you. But they're wrong Ryan." Ryan felt that Ray was projecting. "You don't need to listen to them. They're wrong. They're... wrong..." He was quiet for a moment. "Ryan, I know you felt abandoned for the longest time. While you were missing, I was terrified. I've been suicidal for the longest time. Your absence only made it worse. And I guess I was too scared to talk to you after you came back. I'm sorry for all of this."

"You guys are voices too." Ryan smiled softly, "All of you, even the B-Team. You guys are the positive voices in my head. Geoff is the creative force; Jack is the parent in me. Michael drives me to take risks. Gavin asks questions about the world. And you? You keep me going. Whenever I have doubts about you guys, your voice reassures me." He stopped and looked at Ray. "Can you promise me one thing? Please don't do something like this again. You had me worried sick."

"Of course, buddy. This whole ordeal was awful enough that I'm getting nauseous just thinking about it." Ray smiled. Ryan reached into his pocket and gave Ray his DS. Ray slide over to let Ryan sit next to him. Ryan watched as Ray cleared another dungeon. The two would get better. They were sure of it.


End file.
